Fantastic Four and the Transformers (CONT)

by Chris McFeely

CHAPTER NINE

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GALVATRON’S REVENGE

In the void of space, just outside of Cybertronian airspace, a Decepticon flagship moved closer and closer to the planet. At it’s helm, Decepticon commander Galvatron stood rigid, unmoving. As the other Decepticons on the bridge watched, something that they had never seen began to occur. Galvatron began to smile. It was not hard for them to see why - even at this distance, they could see the titanic struggle going on between the two gigantic combatants on the surface of the planet, so great was their size and the ferocity of their battle.

“So,” Galvatron said at last, “Unicron has returned. This time, I will show him the folly of dismissing the all-powerful Galvatron!” He turned to Soundwave, who sat beside him at the navigation console. “Full speed ahead.”

* * *

A fierce uppercut sent Galactus reeling, and he crashed into the side of the capitol building, which shook dangerously. Unicron loomed over his weakened frame, a look of pure malice on his metallic face. Seeing it as his only option, Galactus quickly grabbed Unicron roughly by the arm, and pulled him over on top of him. Then, with all the force he could muster, he unleashed energy beams from both his hands and eyes, hurling Unicron backwards, throwing him to the ground. He lay inert for a moment, as Galactus weakly stood up, but then, his optical circuits flared red, and he uttered the first sound he had made since the battle started - he began to laugh. A deep, booming laughter, which was heard by all the combatants, who paused in their battle momentarily, to turn and looked at the metallic behemoth. Galactus scowled, and lunged at Unicron.

* * *

Arcee ran up beside Ultra Magnus. “How many of these things are there?” she asked him, rhetorically. Magnus said nothing, and simply continued to blast at the approaching Quintessons. “Look out!” she yelled suddenly, but the warning came to late - one of Magnus’s shots ricocheted off a Quintesson’s armoured hide, and struck Superion directly between the eyes. The gestalt warrior screamed in pain, and reached for his head, but before his hand even reached that far, his arm dropped off, slowly followed by his other limbs. The Aerialbots had been forcibly disengaged. Silverbolt sat up and rubbed his head, and could think of only one thing to say as he saw the Quintessons menacingly approaching him and his fellow Aerialbots.

“Oh sh@#.”

The horde of Quintessons leapt upon the Aerialbots lying in their midst. Sky Lynx swerved rapidly, and dived to aid his comrades. His ferocious lynx mode startled the Quintessons, who backed away a few steps, allowing Sky Lynx the opportunity to transform to shuttle mode. The Aerialbots clambered into his hold, and he jetted away, ramming a few Quintessons for good measure.

“Could things possibly get any worse?” Ultra Magnus said, exasperated, when, suddenly, a burst of gunfire raked the ground narrowly missing him and Arcee. Looking up into the ebony sky, Magnus could see the source of the attack - a heavily armed Decepticon flagship was looming menacingly over the battlefield, it’s cannons smoking. “Me and my big audio emission module...”

* * *

“Here you go,” Springer said, pulling the Nullifier out of his subspace pocket, and handing it to Reed.

“Thank you,” Reed answered, and turned to Rodimus, who was laying on a table in the center of the room. “This is a potentially dangerous process,” Reed warned. “Are you sure you want to go through with it?”

Rodimus looked at Springer, who neither said nor did anything. He turned back to Reed. “Anything for Cybertron.”

“Very well,” Reed set the Nullifier aside, and opened Rodimus’s chest cavity, holding his hand up to his eyes to shield them from the brilliant green glow that exploded from within. The Autobot Matrix of Leadership. Reed lifted it up - even he was in awe of its power.

Suddenly, a thunderous crash filled the room as the door of the bunker was blown from its hinges by a powerful energy blast. Another blast like it knocked the matrix from Reed’s hands.

“I believe that belongs to me!” an insane voice cried out. Galvatron stepped into the bunker, his particle cannon smoking. Springer drew his rotor blades and leapt in front of the unhinged robot. Galvatron chuckled, and turned to Soundwave, who stepped into the room along with him. “If you would...?”

“RAVAGE, RATBAT, RUMBLE - EJECT!” Soundwave pressed his shoulder button three times, and the said cassettes shot from his chest pack and transformed into the ferocious jaguar, bat, and robot that Rodimus and Springer knew so well. Soundwave pointed at Reed. “OPERATION - RECOVERY AND TERMINATION!”

With a mechanical snarl, Ravage lunged in front of Reed, and loosed off one of his hip missiles. Reed caught it in the stomach, and was obscured by the smoke from the powerful explosion. Ravage trained his optical sensors on the cloud, and was particularly startled to discover that not only was the fleshling all right, but he was pissed off! Reed’s elasticated arm shot forward and smacked Ravage square on the jaw, sending him hurtling backwards into Rumble. Ratbat darted from his path, and swooped in behind Reed, grabbing the Matrix from where it lay on the ground. Reed reached up and pulled the creature down towards him.

As Reed struggled with the cassettes, Springer attempted to hold off Galvatron, who struggled with him. “Autobot fool!” he screamed. “You will die!” Galvatron grabbed Springer’s neck, but was sent reeling by a powerful kick to his temple. Rodimus stood over the Decepticon leader, his foot slightly dented from where he had made contact. He turned, scooped up Ratbat, and hurled him into Soundwave, knocking him over and out the door. The stunned bat lay inert on Soundwave’s chest, and Soundwave himself had been knocked unconscious. Following Rodimus’s lead, Reed stretched himself out into a slingshot form, and catapulted Ravage and Rumble in the same direction. Picking up the Matrix, Rodimus shook it at Galvatron.

“You want this?” he yelled. “Then take it!” Rodimus grabbed the casing and motioned to open it. Galvatron screeched in terror, and scrambled out the door. Rodimus fired a blast from his wrist cannons at him as he went, and a roar of pain told him he had made contact. Springer stood by the door of the bunker and watched him go.

“I believe we should make haste,” Reed urged. Rodimus nodded, and lay back on the table. Stretching his fingers into mono-filament thin implements, Reed set to work.

* * *

Ramjet, Dirge, and Thrust had Powerglide outmatched, and although he knew it, he would never admit it to anyone. As he banked left and right in an attempt to shake off the Decepticon jets, he narrowly avoided a blast of purple energy from one of them. “Eh, a little help?” he called to anyone listening over his comm-link. In response, the grounded Aerialbots fired into the sky, blowing Dirge and Thrust out of it. Ramjet stayed with Powerglide, who settled for swiftly transforming and getting one clear shot in. Ramjet’s nosecone exploded, shattering his guidance system, and driving him into a tower, where he crashed to the ground. Just as swiftly, Powerglide transformed back to plane mode, and pulled up, scorching the heads of a few Quintessons with flames from his exhaust. He turned in the air, and saw one of the humans who were aiding them struggling with the one who had brought the Quintessons.

“Well,” Powerglide said out loud, “let’s see if he likes the ol’ Powerglide Pow!” Soaring up into the air, Powerglide dropped several of his patented explosives towards the two humans. Doom looked up, and snarled in anger, although with his hands around the Human Torch’s neck he could do little to stop the bombs. He was hurled to the ground by the force of the explosion, singing his armour and incinerating his cloak. The Torch was unharmed, as he absorbed the heat and force of the explosion, using it to boost his own flame. Sue rose up next to him on a platform of invisible energy.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“Just fine, sis,” Johnny replied. “Hey - who’s that?”

Following Johnny’s gaze, Sue saw a purple robot running from the bunker, bearing a symbol on his chest that was a twisted version of the one the Autobots wore. “I don’t know, but I’ll bet he’s bad news,” Sue replied. “We’d better get down there.”

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